News

Fate of Minnesota buffer bill unknown

Busselman,_Doug_1_220x274

The version of Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton’s buffer proposal that passed both the House and Senate would require a 50 foot buffer around all public waterways and a 16 ½ foot buffer for public drainage ditch systems.

Doug Busselman, public policy director for Minnesota Farm Bureau, says the buffer legislation is part of an omnibus bill that includes agriculture and environment making the fate of the buffer law unclear.

“There are those who are very critical of the fact that the environment bill includes provisions which would do away with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Citizens Advisory Board.”

Those opposed to eliminating the advisory board are advocating for vetoing the omnibus bill.

Farm Bureau, Busselman says, was told to go along with the current language for the buffer bill.

“…in order to prevent the bill from being vetoed.  Because the bill that passed from conference committee they day before was determined to be non-acceptable.”

He tells Brownfield Farm Bureau has been looking at how these proposed changes would impact Minnesota farmers.

“When it was being talked about originally, there was the number that the government agencies brought forward of 125,000 acres.  We’ve identified the fact that that wasn’t anywhere near what was going to be encompassed in any kind of program.”

Busselman says the responsibility of putting in the buffer zones falls on the landowner but some existing as well as new assistance would be available.  The deadline to have buffers in place for public waterways would be on or before November first, 2017 and exactly one year later for public drainage systems.

 

 

 

Add Comment

Your email address will not be published.


 

Stay Up to Date

Subscribe for our newsletter today and receive relevant news straight to your inbox!